My we had fun! On Friday I popped over to our local Budgens store for a couple of things and who should I meet, but Gloucestershire zero waste week’s very own Aunty Rubbish! What an honour! I nearly flung my knickers at her I was so excited.

We chatted for a while about zero waste (amongst other things) and I even came away with a goody bag for being a goody green girl.

While I was there I heard some wonderful news. There are 910 households within the county already signed up for zero waste week! I reckon we’re going to get over 1000, and Aunty Rubbish does too. Every day the Recycle For Gloucestershire website and the travelling road show is bringing in more participants, so the numbers are growing every day.

There are still several opportunities for you to get along to a roadshow in your area before zero waste week commences. Everyone who signs up will get a goody bag, stuffed to the brim with eco friendly, zero waste gorgeousness. I’m not going to tell you what is in there; you’re going to have to go along, sign up and get one for yourself.
So what’s stopping you? The landfill will win and you’ll get something for your troubles. You don’t have to produce no waste at all, just do your best and make sure you get your record sheets back to the council so that someone can get paid lots of money to look important and add up some figures.

I was also able to meet up with the infamous CompostWoman and CompostMan who came along to say Hello. We were given some eggs from their chickens which Little Miss Green scoffed up for lunch and Little Miss green came away with more goodies from this generous and huggalicious couple. If you want to read up on composting or get a feel for rural life, then pop over to Compost Woman’s blog for some enlightenment and entertainment. You’ll get to meet their cats and chickens and learn what it’s like to live in a few acres of beautiful woodland. Compost Woman is a superb writer with a way of making you chuckle, so grab yourself a cup of comfrey tea and pop over for a read.

In the afternoon we met up with another of our readers – Poppy over at A Life Less Simple. She took Little Miss Green under her welly and gave her a tour of their farm. As some of you may know, LMG has a desire to be a ‘lady farmer’ when she grows up, so this provided her with the perfect oppotunity to experience life on the land at first hand. She came away clutching a pint of milk (in a glass bottle of course), freshly gifted from Primrose the cow and is looking forward to going again next week, when there might be some kid goats to cuddle.

All in all a great day – meeting up with some lovely people who share some of our values and being generously given some lovely eggs and milk, not to mention our zero waste goody bag. It was all very ‘Good Life’

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I am a long time supporter of the Green and Sustainable lifestyle. After being caught in the Boscastle floods in 2004, our family begun a journey to respect and promote the importance of Earth's fragile ecosystem, that focussed on reducing waste. Inspired by the beauty and resourcefulness of this wonderful planet, I have published numerous magazine articles on green issues and the author of four books.

Seriously, we thought it was great to meet up with you as well AND to meet Aunty Rubbish!

and Babs, Goldie, Attilla and Sweetiepie the hens are glad LMG enjoyed the eggs :-))

Am most impressed with the Zero Waste Week stuff, just a shame I can’t sign up (wrong postcode!) …but am working on my Council (Herefordshire) to do the same.

I started weighing our landfill bin again at the start of 2009, haven’t done it for a bit and it is something that you have to keep an eye on, or “stuff” starts to slip in again and before you know it it has put on weight….

So far I am pleased with our continued efforts.

Well done to all who have signed up and here’s hoping more than 1000 people have already joined!

I’m off out in half an hour or so to meet Aunty Rubbish or maybe a close relative of hers. I look forward to seeing what’s in the goody bags and hope to see other like minded people there too.

Just finished baking my first batch of experimental zero waste cookies to keep Master P happy through next weeks traumas and I’ve also clicked that rice pudding would be an acceptable replacement for his usual fromage frais tubes. So it’s all looking good. Just need to do some extra careful shopping at the weekend and we’ll be well away!! 🙂 🙂

“What an honour! I nearly flung my knickers at her I was so excited.” That made me laugh so hard I snorted tea out of my nose 😛

Sounds like a good, fun and productive time was had by all !

I am going to start working on the folks in our local authority Environmental Services to get on board with a Zero Waste week. My weekend job is for the local council so I have posted a link to the blog on the Sustainability board of the work intranet and a suggestion they look into following Gloucester’s example – especially as we are supposed to be a ” green ” thinking city !

LOL – It’s beginning to feel like a party. Hee hee, Poppy, I’ve done the cookie thing today too. What I love about them is they’re one of those things that are always easier to make than you think and don’t really take that long either. Hope Aunty Rubbish and her team didn’t get too cold 😀 x

it is your steadfast encouragement which makes you so popular. the whole green family is an example on the hoof.
people like you will eventually keep the habitual consumers from slipping into materialistic addiction’ t’is a better world for all.
i doubt that anything short of economic breakdown would be ineffective in the US. the pocketbook speaks loudest, and when it squeaks they listen.
lip service is duly paid, but the greening of America is so far a somewhat respectable percentage at best.
i’m working on my immediate surroundings and simply by example, i’ve received awe and utter respect for my ordinary recycling endeavors. it’s a start, thank for your moral support.

Well, I talked to our folks here about it.. They still think I’m a little bit (or a lot) crazy, but Dad is starting to see some benefit in what I say… 🙂

It seems economics may work better.. Also, emphasizing plastics/oil as ‘valuable fuel’… ‘we don’t wish to just throw away/burn it, no?’ especially now that it’s so scarce.. (people may prefer the luxury of car travel to their throwaway plastic pots.. hmm..? especially if alternatives exist…)

There was a packet of something with growing potential which made me grin as we had the same a few years ago with our Christmas bonus and it left everyone totally lost for words!

Something to help expand your culinary repertoire, and I’m sure there was something else, but I can’t remember now 🙁 too late in the day.

If Aunty Rubbish is looking in – my young man and his friends were chuffed to bits with their goodies, but I must complain about the packaging!! The cardboard top was obviously okay, but the plastic was only fit for landfill 🙁

One friends mum was so impressed that she is looking to buy some, so she can kit her daughter out as well 🙂